Liquid fuel



Patented Sept. 12, 1933 LIQUID FUEL Joseph A. Vance, Ontario, Calif.

No Drawing.

Application June 24, 1931 Serial No. 546,674

4 Claims.

This application relates to a process for making liquid fuel for use in heating apparatus or combustion engines and the like, and it is a continuation in part of the application of Joseph A.

5 Vance, serially numbered 223,491, for Liquid fuel and method of, making the same, filed October 1, 1927.

The purpose of my invention is to form a liquid fuel by combining in intimate relationship water and any suitable hydrocarbon, such as crude petroleum, gasoline, or other byproduct of crude petroleum under certain pressures and at certain temperatures so that the compound resulting from this process is renderedstable and possessive of properties beyond those characteristic of ordinary emulsions, and is well adapted for use as a liquid fuel for ordinary purposes.

In practicing my invention, I intimately mix the water and the hydrocarbon by'means of any suitable mixing apparatus, such as a churn or similar structure. The quantity of Water utilized may vary from twenty to ninety per cent, while the quantity of hydrocarbon, depending upon the nature thereof, may vary from ten to eighty per,

cent of the resulting solution. In practice, I have found the use of forty per cent water and sixty per cent crude petroleum to form a solution best adapted, when certain crude oils are used, for forming the fuel. In some cases in putting my invention into practice, I have placedin the above solution a minute quantity of quince seed solution, although stable fuel oil has been obtained by my process without the addition of this substance. 7

The next step in my process consists in placing the. above solution under a pressure of from 7,000 to 20,000 pounds per square inch at a temperature of approximately 98 degrees Fahrenheit.

In practice I have found that the use of an initial pressure of 9,000 pounds per square inch with a subsequent reduction of the pressure to 8,000 pounds per square inch, forms a high-grade and stable liquid fuel. Any suitable pressure-exerting apparatus may be used for the above operation. The resulting product obtained from my process outlined above has been found to have properties beyond those characteristic of ordinary emulsions in that it has not been possible to extract water therefrom by the means commonly used in connection with emulsions and mixtures, and in that the same has remained homogeneous in texture for long periods of time.

. My product has been found upon analysis to produce upon combustion a number of heat units equal to and in some cases greater than that provided by combustion of the hydrocarbon used in the process.

It can thus be seen that, by the use of the ordinary ingredients of a hydrocarbon and water, I am enabled by my treatment thereof to arrive at the formation of a liquid fuel having for practical purposes all the properties of a hydrocarbon liquid fuel.

What I desire to claim and secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A process for making liquid fuels, consisting in forming a mixture of a hydrocarbon and water, the quantity of said water being more than twenty per cent of said mixture at a temperature of approximately 98 degrees Fahrenheit, and exerting a pressure on said mixture of more than 7,000 pounds per square inch.

2. A process for making liquid fuels, consisting in forming a mixture of water and a hydrocarbon at a temperature of approximately 98 de grees, the water'content of said mixture being more than twenty per cent thereof, exerting a pressure of 9,000 pounds per square inch, and subsequently reducing said pressure to 8,000

pounds per square inch.

3. A process for making liquid fuels, consisting in the forming of a mixture of water and a the quantity of water used in said mixture being twenty to ninety per cent thereof, at a temperature of approximately 98 degrees Fahrenheit, and the exerting of a pressure on said mixture from 7,000 to 20,000 pounds per hydrocarbon,

square inch. 1

pounds per square inch.

JOSEPH A. VANCE. 

